ihc4U Home Page

Why Responsiveness Is So Important

Responsiveness is the key to a successful and happy career. If there is one single piece of advice that should dominate what you take this is it

JACKIE MOMS MABLEY, THE AMERICAN COMEDIENNE who died in 1975, said:

If you always do what you always did You will always get what you always got

She was a smart lady who apparently faced down the Ku Klux Klan on one occasion – so she was a brave lady too. So, to be outstanding in this new world of service where the by-word is “customer service” you have to be brilliant at being responsive. That means listening harder, working faster, and doing what you say you’ll do. In the UK we are not yet good, yet alone great, at service. Our current economy is being propped up by Continental Europeans, many from eastern Europe, who don’t stay long enough to embed the lessons of smiling and fast service into the indigenous population. But the lessons need to be learned by everyone and not just waiters and waitresses. And this has never been more critical than it is now. If you aren’t great at service, you’ll be toast.

Why call centers offer so much hope to all of us – being a great responder is actually pretty unusual

The hope lies in the fact that in the main they are so awful at response of any kind other than reading off a script. The competitive advantage in being great on the phone rather than just cheaper is enormous. Think of young mothers – remember that baby product company and the stopwatch approach they had; think of reaching old people; think of reaching any specific target group; think of a whole, new, friendly, and interested way of responding to people. If you can’t sound interested in your customers why should they be interested in spending money with you? We all have a big opportunity when the gap between doing it in an average way and doing it better is so huge. Being a great responder is actually pretty unusual.